Soil Conservation Promotes Grassland Farming

The Contribution of Managed Grasslands to Sustainable Agriculture in the Great Lakes Basin explores the many benefits of perennial forages on contemporary farming and shows how pasture, or “grass,” is the central, sustaining element in whole farm resource management. The book challenges the narrow view of the 1950s that grass could be replaced with resource-intensive specialized technologies for crop and livestock production and presents a more holistic, less capital- and resource-intensive approach to livestock management. Readers increase their awareness of the environmental ramifications of continuous annual cropping in support of high-density confinement feeding systems as they focus their attention on grass-based livestock farming as a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative. The Contribution of Managed Grasslands to Sustainable Agriculture in the Great Lakes Basin presents helpful information to agriculturalists working in the fields of crop and animal sciences, resource management, agronomy, agricultural economics, and sustainable agriculture. The book is equally valuable to environmentalists interested in agroecology, biotic diversity, and holistic ecology. Specific topics readers explore include: the multiple roles of managed grasslands, both as a source of ruminant nutrition and as a complement to arable cropping the environmental and economic forces which have altered the prominence of managed grasslands in North America soil, nutrient, and water conservation with managed grasslands a basic introduction to plant/animal systems an historical perspective on pasture investigation in Ontario The Contribution of Managed Grasslands to Sustainable Agriculture in the Great Lakes Basin bridges the gap between livestock agriculturists and environmentalists. After all, perennial forages are an essential and irreplaceable tool for soil, water, and air resource management, and livestock agriculture (especially ruminant agriculture) provides the economic rationale for growing these forages. Equally important is the book's approach to specific obstacles, such as the lack of direct information from predecessors working in the same field and unsupportive funding sources and policies based on the archaic notion that pasture is an outdated technology. Overall, this book underscores the critical relevance of managed grasslands to the sustainability of agriculture as a whole and serves as a guide to the types of grassland research and to the rationale for changes of the focus of the research over the decades. Especially important for researchers in this field, The Contribution of Managed Grasslands to Sustainable Agriculture in the Great Lakes Basin helps identify useful background information and suggests promising new directions for future research.

During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it was proven to be one of the most crucial components of the earth’s climate system, which has a great potential to be managed by humans. Soils as a carbon pool are one of the key factors in several Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 15, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” with the SOC stock being explicitly cited in Indicator 15.3.1. This technical manual is the first attempt to gather, in a standardized format, the existing data on the impacts of the main soil management practices on SOC content in a wide array of environments, including the advantages, drawbacks and constraints. This manual presents different sustainable soil management (SSM) practices at different scales and in different contexts, supported by case studies that have been shown with quantitative data to have a positive effect on SOC stocks and successful experiences of SOC sequestration in practical field applications. Volume 3 includes a total of 49 practices that have a direct impact on SOC sequestration and maintenance in cropland, grassland, integrated systems and farming approaches.

During the last decades, soil organic carbon (SOC) attracted the attention of a much wider array of specialists beyond agriculture and soil science, as it was proven to be one of the most crucial components of the earth’s climate system, which has a great potential to be managed by humans. Soils as a carbon pool are one of the key factors in several Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal 15, “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss” with the SOC stock being explicitly cited in Indicator 15.3.1. This technical manual is the first attempt to gather, in a standardized format, the existing data on the impacts of the main soil management practices on SOC content in a wide array of environments, including the advantages, drawbacks and constraints. This manual presents different sustainable soil management (SSM) practices at different scales and in different contexts, supported by case studies that have been shown with quantitative data to have a positive effect on SOC stocks and successful experiences of SOC sequestration in practical field applications. Volume 4 includes 51 case studies dealing with cropland, grassland, integrated systems and farming approaches.